If you 're a fan of charter schools you should be watching what's going on in Washington DC.
Last week the Washington Post ran a very interesting article on DC principals going door-to-door to tout the benefits of a public school education. What prompted principals to take to the streets? Numbers and test results. Charters enroll 44 percent of all DC students. However, charter test scores are also impressive. The academic gains of charter schools are even better than the fast-improving DC public schools which lead the nation in academic gains.
What to make of all this news? Heritage's Lindsay Burke did a follow up on the Post story on Heritage's blog, the Daily Signal. Burke addressed the impact of all this activity and said:
It's good schools increasingly must compete for students. Competition encourages schools to create safe learning environment that are desirable to parents and perform academically. . . Not only does the research suggest school leaders themselves respond to competitive pressure, but that response appears to manifest in positive gains for students who remain in traditional public schools.
Let's hope educators and those who working on The Charter School Modification Bill (SB-793) are watching.
